How blockchain can solve some of healthcare’s ills

In its 2018 Global Blockchain Survey, Deloitte found that 74 percent of respondents see a compelling business case for blockchain technology, and of those respondents, more than half expect their organizations to deploy a blockchain application during the next year.

Interestingly, despite growing interest and investments, the Deloitte survey also found that a significant percentage of respondents believe that blockchain is overhyped.

While these data points might appear to conflict with one another, I don’t see it that way, especially for healthcare. This is an accurate reflection of not only the enthusiasm around blockchain’s potential, but also the unavoidable overload that accompanies anything new.

To be sure, blockchain is a nascent technology. It is still unclear where the technology will work best, or when we can expect widespread deployment of those applications. In other words, we have some ideas and are working on pilot projects, but the killer app (or apps) for blockchain has yet to emerge. We are confident that as is the case with many raw technologies, those applications will materialize.

What we can collectively be sure of is that blockchain promises to disrupt and fundamentally change the way that every industry conducts business.

In healthcare, blockchain offers the opportunity to improve data accessibility and interoperability with broad application for functions as varied as clinical care, supply chain and reimbursement.

Healthcare is one of the most data intensive industries, but organizations largely fail to capitalize on the power of most of that data. Disparate systems have created layers of siloed data across the industry. This has made it difficult, and at times impossible, for stakeholders—hospitals, insurers, payers, group purchasing organizations and manufacturers—to share and analyze data in a meaningful way. This is one of the root causes for much of the inefficiency and waste with which the healthcare industry struggles.

Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize how the industry thinks about and processes information, not only from a business perspective, but also as consumers. It eases communication, particularly how data is communicated as a function of the Internet.

Blockchain, as a decentralized and transparent public ledger, records transactions using digitally encrypted blocks, and it is ideal for sharing data in real-time.

For healthcare, this presents the opportunity to improve every aspect of the industry, from clinical care and supply chain—all the way to research. Blockchain is applicable anywhere disparate data exists, such as clinical records, medical devices, insurance records, payer files and supply chain.

To understand blockchain’s potential impact, let’s look at a common stumbling block in the industry today, what can be described as “understanding the who.”

Today, a patient is identified by a wide range of numbers (Social Security, insurance, medical record and more) that all mean the same thing—it’s Patient A. For stakeholders, tying those various numbers to one individual requires a bit of detective-like, cross-referencing work. Now imagine if that process could be eliminated. One number connects to all the other data for Patient A. Every stakeholder could use their own number for that patient, but it would all reference the same thing—Patient A.

Blockchain would enable the same opportunities with business entities as well, tying together key identifiers, such as ship-to numbers, GLNs and postal code addresses, to name a few.

This opens a door to nationwide medical record interoperability. Today, most patients’ medical histories are spread across multiple providers and organizations (insurers, pharmacies and others). The dispersion of the data is very challenging to patients, creating hurdles to accessing information to view, correct and even distribute to those who need the information. This also means there is no unified view of a patient record. Blockchain could link these multiple data sources to create a single, real-time picture of the patient that they can carry with them.

The industry is still in the early stages of utilizing blockchain, determining what will be the killer app and making it sustainable. However, one thing is clear: success will require the healthcare industry to work together. Blockchains are built for huge volumes of disparate data. One-off initiatives won’t capitalize on the technology’s strength and will fall short of delivering real results, if any at all.

Additionally, not everything will be a fit for blockchain. For example, there’s little reason to blockchain-enable ERP systems. Organizations that hope to capitalize on the technology’s strength should first begin by understanding the technologies that are currently in place and business functions they serve. If the process is already efficient, it’s not fit.

Understanding and embracing a disruptive technology is both exhilarating and terrifying. To be sure, there are still lingering questions to be answered regarding the best use cases, security and even the cost-efficiency of blockchain. But at the highest level, healthcare’s data problem is holding back the industry from meeting its collective goals of delivering the best patient care while stripping waste and inefficiency out of the system.

We have an obligation to explore, and even adopt, new technologies that offer the potential to help transform the industry and meet these critical goals.

Definitions

Personal Data – any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.Processing – any operation or set of operations which is performed on Personal Data or on sets of Personal Data.Data subject – a natural person whose Personal Data is being Processed.Child – a natural person under 16 years of age.We/us (either capitalized or not)

Processing is limited to the purpose. Our Processing activities fit the purpose for which Personal Data was gathered.

Processing is done with minimal data. We only gather and Process the minimal amount of Personal Data required for any purpose.

Processing is limited with a time period. We will not store your personal data for longer than needed.

We will do our best to ensure the accuracy of data.

We will do our best to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of data.

Data Subject’s rights

The Data Subject has the following rights:

Right to information – meaning you have to right to know whether your Personal Data is being processed; what data is gathered, from where it is obtained and why and by whom it is processed.

Right to access – meaning you have the right to access the data collected from/about you. This includes your right to request and obtain a copy of your Personal Data gathered.

Right to rectification – meaning you have the right to request rectification or erasure of your Personal Data that is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to erasure – meaning in certain circumstances you can request for your Personal Data to be erased from our records.

Right to restrict processing – meaning where certain conditions apply, you have the right to restrict the Processing of your Personal Data.

Right to object to processing – meaning in certain cases you have the right to object to Processing of your Personal Data, for example in the case of direct marketing.

Right to object to automated Processing – meaning you have the right to object to automated Processing, including profiling; and not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated Processing. This right you can exercise whenever there is an outcome of the profiling that produces legal effects concerning or significantly affecting you.

Right to data portability – you have the right to obtain your Personal Data in a machine-readable format or if it is feasible, as a direct transfer from one Processor to another.

Right to lodge a complaint – in the event that we refuse your request under the Rights of Access, we will provide you with a reason as to why. If you are not satisfied with the way your request has been handled please contact us.

Right for the help of supervisory authority – meaning you have the right for the help of a supervisory authority and the right for other legal remedies such as claiming damages.

Right to withdraw consent – you have the right withdraw any given consent for Processing of your Personal Data.

Data we gather

Information you have provided us with
This might be your e-mail address, name, billing address, home address etc – mainly information that is necessary for delivering you a product/service or to enhance your customer experience with us. We save the information you provide us with in order for you to comment or perform other activities on the website. This information includes, for example, your name and e-mail address.

Information automatically collected about you
This includes information that is automatically stored by cookies and other session tools. For example, your shopping cart information, your IP address, your shopping history (if there is any) etc. This information is used to improve your customer experience. When you use our services or look at the contents of our website, your activities may be logged.

Information from our partners
We gather information from our trusted partners with confirmation that they have legal grounds to share that information with us. This is either information you have provided them directly with or that they have gathered about you on other legal grounds. See the list of our partners here.

Publicly available information
We might gather information about you that is publicly available.

How we use your Personal Data

We use your Personal Data in order to:

provide our service to you. This includes for example registering your account; providing you with other products and services that you have requested; providing you with promotional items at your request and communicating with you in relation to those products and services; communicating and interacting with you; and notifying you of changes to any services.

enhance your customer experience;

fulfil an obligation under law or contract;

We use your Personal Data on legitimate grounds and/or with your Consent.

On the grounds of entering into a contract or fulfilling contractual obligations, we Process your Personal Data for the following purposes:

to identify you;

to provide you a service or to send/offer you a product;

to communicate either for sales or invoicing;

On the ground of legitimate interest, we Process your Personal Data for the following purposes:

We Process your Personal Data in order to fulfil obligation rising from law and/or use your Personal Data for options provided by law. We reserve the right to anonymise Personal Data gathered and to use any such data. We will use data outside the scope of this Policy only when it is anonymised. We save your billing information and other information gathered about you for as long as needed for accounting purposes or other obligations deriving from law, but not longer than 1 year.

We might process your Personal Data for additional purposes that are not mentioned here, but are compatible with the original purpose for which the data was gathered. To do this, we will ensure that:

the link between purposes, context and nature of Personal Data is suitable for further Processing;

the further Processing would not harm your interests and

there would be appropriate safeguard for Processing.

We will inform you of any further Processing and purposes.

Who else can access your Personal Data

We do not share your Personal Data with strangers. Personal Data about you is in some cases provided to our trusted partners in order to either make providing the service to you possible or to enhance your customer experience. We share your data with:

Our processing partners:

facebook.com

google.com

bing.com

twitter.com

pinterest.com

Our business partners:

facebook.com

google.com

bing.com

twitter.com

pinterest.com

Connected third parties:

facebook.com

google.com

bing.com

twitter.com

pinterest.com

We only work with Processing partners who are able to ensure adequate level of protection to your Personal Data. We disclose your Personal Data to third parties or public officials when we are legally obliged to do so. We might disclose your Personal Data to third parties if you have consented to it or if there are other legal grounds for it.

How we secure your data

We do our best to keep your Personal Data safe. We use safe protocols for communication and transferring data (such as HTTPS). We use anonymising and pseudonymising where suitable. We monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks.

Even though we try our best we can not guarantee the security of information. However, we promise to notify suitable authorities of data breaches. We will also notify you if there is a threat to your rights or interests. We will do everything we reasonably can to prevent security breaches and to assist authorities should any breaches occur.

If you have an account with us, note that you have to keep your username and password secret.

Children

We do not intend to collect or knowingly collect information from children. We do not target children with our services.

Cookies and other technologies we use

We use cookies and/or similar technologies to analyse customer behaviour, administer the website, track users’ movements, and to collect information about users. This is done in order to personalize and enhance your experience with us.

A cookie is a tiny text file stored on your computer. Cookies store information that is used to help make sites work. Only we can access the cookies created by our website. You can control your cookies at the browser level. Choosing to disable cookies may hinder your use of certain functions.

We use cookies for the following purposes:

Necessary cookies – these cookies are required for you to be able to use some important features on our website, such as logging in. These cookies don’t collect any personal information.

Functionality cookies – these cookies provide functionality that makes using our service more convenient and makes providing more personalised features possible. For example, they might remember your name and e-mail in comment forms so you don’t have to re-enter this information next time when commenting.

Analytics cookies – these cookies are used to track the use and performance of our website and services

Advertising cookies – these cookies are used to deliver advertisements that are relevant to you and to your interests. In addition, they are used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement. They are usually placed to the website by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission. These cookies remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers. Often targeting or advertising cookies will be linked to site functionality provided by the other organisation.

We use Google Analytics to measure traffic on our website. Google has their own Privacy Policy which you can review here. If you’d like to opt out of tracking by Google Analytics, visit the Google Analytics opt-out page.

Contact Information

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to make change to this Privacy Policy.

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Please note that disabling these technologies may interfere with the performance and features of the Services.

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